You pay $60 for many of the new games you play, but how much does a blockbuster game cost to make? Although it is a seemingly simple question, it is actually incredibly difficult to answer.

Of all the opaque video game industry questions, this is perhaps the most opaque. Many in the industry don't even know the budgets of games. It is not unusual for developer working on a big-budget game to have no idea of the game's budget.

Publishers and developers almost never release information on budgets of their games, and publicly traded companies just combine all of their production costs in investor reports, giving little insight into individual game costs. Most commonly, the numbers we see circulated are often guesses from writers or analysts. So budget numbers could vary wildly: one place might say $60 million, another might say $15 million.

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When we do get specific numbers, it is often only the development or marketing costs, which do not necessarily provide a complete picture of a game's entire budget of development, distribution and marketing costs. Also, specific numbers communicated to the public may not be accurate: like the film industry, it is possible for accounting to play tricks with budgeting to change the appearance of things. In 2009, EA executive Rich Hilleman indicated in a speech that his company "now typically spends two or three times as much on marketing and advertising as it does on developing a game." This formula is not necessarily applicable to every potential blockbuster game—a "AAA game", in gaming parlance—or to every company, but it is fair to say the break-even point for the average AAA game is well above the development budget. Companies also need to recoup marketing and other expenses.

There is no question, however, that the cost to make a AAA games in going up across the board. Last summer, when Kotaku editor-in-chief Stephen Totilo talked to Sony's head of worldwide development, Shuhei Yoshida, about game budgets, Yoshida said budgets for top-tier PS4 games would be "slightly larger" than the $20 to $50 million price range he estimated as the development cost for "top PS3 games." Four years ago, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot estimated that the average production budget for the generation of games following Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 would be $60 million. In an 2012 investor report, Take-Two admitted some of its "top titles" cost in excess of $60 million for development alone.

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Below, I have a list, pulled from public sources, that marks a first attempt here at Kotaku to get a comprehensive sense of how much money the world's biggest and most expensive games cost. ll the information presented below comes from publicly available sources and all figures should be viewed with appropriate skepticism given the murkiness I described above, though I have tried as hard as possible to find numbers I believe to be accurate.

Eagle-eyed readers may notice the following list lacks some of the more prominent numbers from the past few years, and that is intentional—many of those are rather specious. Leslie Benzies' widely circulated $100 million development budget for Grand Theft Auto IV was simply an estimate, and according to The Sunday Times article the number came from, Benzies did not actually know how much the game cost and just "[hazarded] a guess." With that sort of admission, I can't help but take The Scotman's claim of a ~£170 million development and marketing spend for Grand Theft Auto V with a grain of salt. Following an incident in which The Wall Street Journalretracted claims that Starcraft II cost $100 million to develop, Chris Sigaty, a producer on the game, told Gamereactor that, unlike most companies, Blizzard doesn't have any sort of set budget for their games, and spends as much as is necessary to make the games the company wants to make.

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Here are budget numbers for a select number of games. When possible, I have indicated whether it is development, marketing or combined costs.

The Possible Price Tags For 115 Video Games, From E.T. To Watch Dogs

Please note: These figures are not adjusted for inflation. Also, development or marketing costs does not represent the total cost of the game. Non-development or marketing costs have been labeled.

1982

E.T. - $23 million (licensing) - In Master of the Game — a 1994 biography about the late Steve Ross, then-CEO of Atari's then-parent company Warner Communications — Skip Paul, an Atari executive at the time, told author Connie Bruck the company spent $23 million to secure the license for the infamous bomb.

1983

Dragon's Lair - $3 million -According to Jamie Russell's book Generation Xbox, the handdrawn animation for this laserdisc game cost $1.3 million and the total cost of creating the game and cabinet amounted to $3 million.

Wing Commander IV - $10 million - A 1996 Texas Monthly profile claimed the space combat sequel had a $10 million budget. Of that $10 million, $8.5 million was spent on live-action video sequences, according to Jamie Russell's Generation Xbox.

PaRappa the Rapper - ¥90 million - A 2013 Edge magazine piece about the creation of the seminal rhythm game said the budget was "around 90 million [yen]."

Riven - $20 million - According to a 1997 BusinessWeek report, the Myst sequel cost $10 million to develop and an additional $10 million to market, suggesting a total spend of around $20 million on the followup to the then-bestselling PC game of all-time.

1998

Grim Fandango - $3 million - In another tweet about the Double Fine adventure game Kickstarter, Tim Schafer said his last title for LucasArts cost $3 million.

NFL 2K3 - $15 million - Then-Sega COO Peter Moore told The Wall Street Journal the budget for the company's second multiplatform football game was about $15 million.

2003

Enter the Matrix - $67 million - TheLos Angeles Times reported that development costs on this game tie-in were $20 million, a figure the paper said "[did not include] marketing expenses or the cost of the extra hour of movie footage [included in the game]." Atari also paid $47 million to acquire The Matrix license and developer Shiny Entertainment from Interplay, who originally owned both the license and developer.

Jak II - $15 million - Development costs on this divisive gritty, open-world sequel were $15 million, according to Jason Rubin.

Uru: Ages Beyond Myst - $12 million - The cost of the fourth Myst game was more than $12 million, according to an Associated Press report.

2004

Call of Duty: Finest Hour - $8.5 million - The first Call of Duty console game's development contract, released as part of a lawsuit between developer Spark Unlimited and Activision, pegged development costs for the game at $8.5 million.

Driv3r - $34 million - Bruno Bonnell, then-chairman of publisher Atari, told The Wall Street Journal marketing and development budgets for the tepidly received open-world game were both around $17 million, bringing total spend to around $34 million.

Half-Life 2 $40 million - In a 2004 interview, Gabe Newell admitted the game's development cost in excess of $40 million.

Halo 2 - under $20 million - A spokesperson for Microsoft told The Wall Street Journal development costs on Bungie's sequel were under $20 million.

Jak 3 - $10 million - Jason Rubin's presentation said the last game of Naughty Dog's trilogy, produced in half the time of its predecessors, cost $10 million to develop.

World of Warcraft - $200 million - In a September 2008 analyst conference call, Blizzard disclosed that the cost of four years of post-launch upkeep on the blockbuster MMO was $200 million.

Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks - $20 million - The former studio head and founder of developer Midway Studios Los Angeles (previously Paradox Development) said on her resume this fighting game spinoff had a development budget of $20 million.

Quake 4 - $15 million - In a 2005 profile of developer Raven Software, the Wisconsin State Journal—a local Madison, Wisconsin newspaper—reported that the shooter sequel cost around $15 million to develop.

Psychonauts - $11.8 million - Caroline Esmurdoc, then-COO of Double Fine, claimed in a Game Developer postmortem the company's literally mind-bending platformer had a development budget of $11.8 million.

2006

Empire Earth III - $10 million - A former Mad Doc Software producer said the strategy sequel cost $10 million to develop.

Gears of War - $10 million - During a speech at the London Games Summit, Mark Rein, vice president of Epic Games, said development costs on the game were "around $10 million."

Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter - $18 million - The first Tom Clancy title for HD consoles cost $18 million, according to the biography of a North Carolinian news anchor and actress who appeared in the game.

Lost Planet - $40 million - According to a 2006 Forbes report, marketing and development budgets on Capcom's game were both $20 million, pegging total spend around $40 million.

Scarface: The World is Yours - $2.5 million (audio) - The audio budget alone on the open-world crime game was $2.5 million, according to a Gamasutra postmortem by the project's audio director, Rob Bridgett.

Crackdown - $20 million - David Jones, former head of now-defunct developer Realtime Worlds, told GamesIndustry.biz the cult open-world game had a development budget of around $20 million.

Crysis - €15 million - At the 2008 Games Convention Developers Conference in Germany, Cevat Yerli said the PC-only shooter had a development budget of 15 million euros.

Halo MMO - $90 million - In an interview with IncGamers, Dusty Monk—a former Ensemble Studios engineer—claimed the studio's never released Halo MMO (codenamed "Titan") had a project budget of $90 million.

2009

The Beatles: Rock Band - $20 million (marketing) - Advertising Age said the marketing spend on Harmonix's single-artist title was $20 million.

Brütal Legend - $24 million - In a Game Developer postmortem, Caroline Esmurdoc said Double Fine's heavy metal action game cost $24 million to develop.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 - $200 million - In 2009 article on the game's launch, Ben Fritz, then a reporter at the Los Angeles Times, reported that the game had a production budget between $40 million and $50 million, and a total launch cost — including global distribution and marketing — of $200 million.

Ghostbusters - $15-20 million - A local newspaper report on the game from the Fort Worth Star Telegram pegged development costs for Terminal Reality's next-gen SKUs as being between $15 million and $20 million.

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Heavy Rain - €40 million - At the Polish gaming industry conference, Quantic Dream CEO Guillaume de Fondaumiere said the company's first title for Sony cost 16.7 million euros to develop and total spend on the game amounted to somewhere around 40 million euros.

2011

Allods Online - $12 million - According to a press release,
development costs on this Russian MMORPG were $12 million, allegedly
making it the most expensive game development project in Russian
history.

Call of Duty: Elite - $50 million - On their resume, a former Activision vice president of digital operations for Call of Duty said the franchise's service component cost $50 million to "develop and launch."

Dead Island - zł40 million - Techland marketing director Pawel Kopinski told Polish newspaper Gazeta Prawna the development cost on the open-world zombie game was around 40 million zloty.

Homefront - $50 million - THQ's attempt to take on Call of Duty had a $50 million development budget, according to former Kaos Studios producer Dex Smither (Update: Link to his CV removed at his request; he subsequently confirmed the $50 million budget figure to Kotaku directly).

Real Racing 2 - $2 million - In an interview with a mobile game site, Firemint said it spent $2 million developing this mobile racing sim sequel.

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Rift - $60-70 million - In an interview with Develop, former Trion Worlds CEO Lars Buttler said the development budget on Trion's first game was more than $50 million. And an Effie Awards document pegged the cost of the game's marketing campaign as being between $10 million to $20 million.

Warhammer 40k: Dark Millenium Online - $30 million - Former THQ executive Danny Bilson told Eurogamer last year the publisher spent around $30 million on this licensed MMO before the title was cancelled.

Borderlands 2 - $30-35 million - In a 2012 1UP piece asking developers about game budgets, Gearbox's Randy Pitchford estimated that the RPG shooter cost between $30 million and $35 million. [Note: This entry was originally associated with the first Borderlands. Apologies for the error.]

2013

1666 - $35 million - The contract between Patrice Désilets and THQ, released as part of Désilets' lawsuit against Ubisoft, estimated development costs of $35 million for his Assassin's Creed followup.

Defiance - $70 million - A Wall Street Journal report claimed the game component of the game/television hybrid cost $70 million, a cost split evenly between Syfy and Trion Worlds. In comparison, the paper said the budget of the first season of the television show was $40 million.

2014

Destiny - $140 million - The leaked initial development contract for the game authorized payments totaling up to $140 million to cover Bungie's development and limited marketing efforts (ViDocs and other marketing assets) prior to the game's beta. As the contract also specifies, Bungie's marketing costs — limited to $1 million — are separate from Activision's own marketing expenses on Destiny.

Watch Dogs - $68 million - Stéphane Decroix, an executive producer on the project at Ubisoft Montreal, told French business publication Challenges Ubisoft's contemporary open-world title has a development budget in excess of 50 million euros ($68 million).

The above list is obviously incomplete. If you know how much a video game cost, let me know. Or tell someone at Kotaku.

superannuation is a self-described "internet extraordinaire" residing somewhere in the Pacific Time Zone. Follow him on Twitter.